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  1. Scientific Internships, Fellowships / Trainees and Non-U.S. Citizens

FDA Pharmacy Student Experiential Program

The Food and Drug Administration is one of the nation's oldest and most respected consumer protection agencies. FDA's mission is to promote and protect the public health by helping safe and effective products reach the market in a timely way, and monitoring products for continued safety after marketing.

Goals and Objectives

The FDA Pharmacy Student Experiential Program (PSEP) provides an opportunity to learn about the FDA’s multidisciplinary processes for addressing public health issues involving drugs, biologics, and medical devices. Pharmacy students who participate in the FDA Pharmacy Student Experiential Program acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities beneficial to their professional career.

Each FDA rotation site has its own list of objectives (see the links to the Office/Division that offer student rotations below). An FDA rotation allows pharmacy students to become familiar with:

Program Activities

The FDA Pharmacy Student Experiential Program includes opportunities to attend FDA advisory committee hearings, congressional hearings, and a monthly lecture series for pharmacy students. In addition to learning about FDA operations, students interact with other pharmacy students from schools across the country and learn about pharmacist career opportunities available in government.

Compensation

The FDA Pharmacy Student Experiential Program is part of the FDA Volunteer Program for Students (PDF - 64KB). The positions are unpaid. However, the program provides academic credit hours required for the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree.

Housing

FDA does not provide housing for students. Students are responsible for securing housing during the rotations.

Parking and Transportation

The FDA has office buildings located in several sites in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Most of the FDA Pharmacy Student Experiential Program opportunities are available in Silver Spring, MD where most parking is free and it is possible to commute by bus. However, at the other sites free parking is not guaranteed. There are FDA shuttles between many of the sites and others are accessible by Metro rail and bus systems. However, depending on the location of the rotation site, private transportation would be a definite advantage.

See our Ground Transportation webpage for more information.

Legal Requirements

Please review our FDA Pharmacy Student Experiential Program Manual of Policies and Procedures for a detailed list of all legal requirements.

In order to participate in this program students must:

  • Be U.S. citizens.
  • Be enrolled in an accredited pharmacy school.
  • Have completed his or her pharmacy school’s requirements to start experiential programs.
  • Apply to and be accepted into the FDA PSEP.

Students are prohibited from releasing, publishing, or disclosing non-public information, specifically any confidential commercial or trade secret information obtained while serving as an FDA student. Students will be subject to a background check in order to obtain security clearance before their rotation.

The students must complete all the forms including the following forms and mail or email them as per instructions provided in the FDA email from the FDA preceptor nine weeks prior to their rotation:

The students must also complete and return the following forms to FDA Security within the timeframe given in the email from FDA Security.

  • The students must also complete and return the following forms to FDA Security within the timeframe given in the email from FDA Security.
  • E-QIP Initiation Form (PDF - 26KB)
  • Form 306 : Declaration for Federal Employment. Students must bring two forms of government issued identification (drivers license, passport, social security card, etc) to the rotation.
  • FD-258: Fingerprinting form (if not living within one hundred miles of the FDA White Oak campus).
    • Pharmacy students living within one hundred miles of White Oak, MD, will schedule an appointment at the White Oak badging office and perform fingerprinting in advance of the rotation start date, as directed in the email from FDA Security.
  • Completes the Annual Computer Security Awareness training and emails the certificate of completion to the preceptor.

How to Apply

Rotations are offered only in the last year of pharmacy school. Students are encouraged to apply in the year preceding their last year of pharmacy school. Rotations are available throughout the entire year, and may last anywhere from 4-6 weeks, depending upon the school’s experiential program.

All interested applicants must submit the following through their school’s experiential coordinator via the FDA PSEP online application system:

  1. Resume or curriculum vitae
  2. One-page paper focusing on how a rotation at FDA would facilitate achievement of your career goals
  3. Three potential time slots for your rotation, keeping in mind that flexible rotation slots will expand placement opportunities.
  4. Rank order of top three preferred rotation sites. Rotations are available in various centers, offices and divisions within the FDA. We have provided you with a list of offices and divisions that participate in the FDA Pharmacy Student Experiential Program. However, this list is not comprehensive and it is possible that a student may be selected by a division/preceptor that does not appear on this list. You may pick rotations in any of the Offices or Divisions listed below:

Please contact your Experiential Coordinator for details on the application process for the current academic school year.

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